Where are all my favourite authors?

I love nothing more than a good "Chick Lit" book but, because I've been reading so much lately, I've read all my favourite author's books.  I wish they'd bloody put out some new ones - don't they know that I need something good to read.  I've been using the library lately in the hope of discovering a new favourite author but so far, NOTHING! 

Some of my favourite "Chick Lit" authors are Maeve Binchy (all time favourite), Cathy Kelly, Marian Keyes and Monica Macinerney so, if by chance any of you are reading this, then can you do me a favour and get writing.  I love your work.

Nothing is nicer than getting a new novel from one of your all time favourite writers, making a hot cup of coffee, curling up in your favourite chair, opening a cherry ripe and starting the journey - meeting the new characters, learning to love (or hate) them and becoming engrossed in their world.  This is Bliss!

On the other hand, nothing is worse than starting on a book that you just can't warm to.  It is so depressing - the coffee and the cherry ripe are fine but I am no longer bothered to read books all the way through if I'm not enjoying it.  If I'm not into it in the first two to three chapters then down it goes. 

Life is too short to read crappy books.  In fact, when I think about it, in my opinion life is too short for a lot of things like:

• Drinking wine from cheap glasses (doesn't matter if the wine is cheap),
• sleeping on less than 500 thread count sheets,
• Eating dried pasta and not making your own (try it, you'll love it and its very therapeutic),
• Drying yourself with rough towels (they have to be soft and fluffy)

If anybody knows any great chick-lit authoris, please let me know.  I'm willing to give any of them a chance with a coffee and cherry ripe.

Final Dose of Chemotherapy

Today is a very auspicious day for me - I had my last round of chemotherapy.  It is very early days yet but I actually feel OK.  I feel a bit flushed but not sick and I enjoyed dinner this evening with all of my taste buds in tact.  What more can I ask for?

As usual, the nurses in the Bundaberg Hospital oncology day ward were nothing but wonderful and presented me with a stunning purple orchid before I left to mark the occasion.  I'll miss the girls up there - I see them every week and have spent hours with them during my treatment days.  They have become a bit of a security blanket for me.  I know that makes me sound a bit needy but during this time they have been the people with all the answers and I've grown to depend on them so much. 

On a more positive note (there is always a silver lining), I have had the PICC line removed from my arm so I can now shower without a plastic bag on my arm and that I can assure you has been a long time coming.  Hopefully, I will be able to sleep on my side tonight and not flat on my back which has been a necessity in recent months.  It's amazing how we take these small things for granted. 

I just realised that I will now be able to go swimming and for those of you have read my earlier blogs, I can get back into my new sexy swimming cossies that I bought to celebrate my sea change to Bundaberg.  Life is getting back on track!!!!  The boogie-boarding may have to wait until the warmer months but I think I can manage the local heated swimming pool. 

Before I do this I may have to invest in a bathing cap because I don't want to be scaring small children with my bald head - actually it has a bit of a fluffy thing happening and looks scarily like a baby orangutan.  For the first time in my life the only body hair problems I've got before donning my bathers is the hair on my head.  Makes a change from shaving, waxing, depilitory creams and bleaching doesn't it?  In hindsight, I will never complain again about hair removal treatments but will gladly embrace them and enjoy the feeling of having body hair ripped from my skin with hot wax because I now know the alternative is far worse. 

The chemotherapy is the first 'therapy' in the line-up with my next challenge being radiotherapy which starts in mid September and goes for six weeks.  In the words of Scarlett O'Hara in 'Gone With The Wind' though, "I shall think about that tomorrow."

For now, I am going to enjoy my time not having to go for Chemotherapy and think about my new townhouse which, if all goes to plan, settles in early September. The move into my own apartment is a big milestone in my journey towards independence and I am getting very excited about this.  It is scary to be doing this on my own without Alan but I know I can do it, I just have to stay strong and focused and learn to ask for help from family and friends.  What I've discovered since moving back to Bundaberg is that my family want, and are happy, to help me so sometimes I have to be a little less independent and accept their assistance.

Iit will be wonderful getting all my own possesions arounds me again and eating what and when I like and watching anything I like on TV, having the dog inside with me, grocery shopping, sleeping in.  On the downside though I will have to do my own washing and ironing.  I guess not every cloud has a silver lining after all!  (Thanks Mum)

Neenish Tart - Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride

Having come back to live in Bundaberg after just thirty years it was nice to wander around the central business district to see what shops were still around from my teens.  You can’t imagine my delight when I saw Lushus Cakes.  It just goes to show, you can’t keep a good cake shop down.

The memories came flooding back to me.  As the office junior back in the 1970s my biggest priority of the day was to collect morning tea for the guys in the office.  I know, I know – things were a lot more sexist back then and because I was not only the office junior but a ‘girl’ as well meant we didn’t even bother to draw straws, I was it.

Every day I’d head down to Lushus Cakes with a cardboard box to buy copious quantities of cream buns, cream donuts, cottage pies, sausage rolls, buttered Boston buns, apple turnovers and vanilla slices and the very occasional Neenish tart.   It was obvious that high cholesterol wasn’t a big deal back in the mid 1970s.  It still amazes me how much the guys in that office could devour – just at morning tea!

As I stood looking in the window of Lushus Cakes there sat a lone Neenish tart looking very sad and neglected calling out, ‘pick me, pick me’.  What is it with the Neenish tart?  I think it is the most under-appreciated baked item around.  Is it because it is smaller than a cream bun or a vanilla slice (aka ‘snot block’) and people don’t think they’re getting value for money?  Have people actually tried a Neenish Tart to see just what delicacy lies beneath the elegant icing? 

Within the realms of baked goods, you have competitions for the best pie or the best vanilla slice and this has helped raise their profile.   In the meantime, the poor old Neenish tart is treated like some poor relation, doomed to be left on the shelf when all the more glamorous cakes and tarts have been devoured.

Sadly, the Neenish tart is always the bridesmaid of the cake world and never the bride.

Don’t be lured by the giant calorie-laden, cellulite-generating cakes in the shop window that should come with a year’s gym membership.  Give the Neenish tart a try and I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you crack open the unassuming two-toned icing on top.  Remember, good things come in small packages – just like the small and elegant Neenish tart.